Former director of the V&A Sir Roy Strong told yesterday’s Oldie lunch at Simpson’s how menswear shops in the Sixties used to measure your inside leg even when you were buying a tie. He also recalled how cockneys and toffs alike treated him, as a meritocrat from the north London suburbs, with contempt when he became director of the National Portrait Gallery at the age of 31. “Harold Nicolson said: ‘We should never have appointed you,’ and turned his back,” said Sir Roy.

Did you know that London is officially a forest? As our capital is 20 per cent covered by trees — it is, in fact, the largest urban forest in the world. As part of London Tree Week, RE: LEAF, a partnership campaign led by the Mayor to protect the city’s trees and encourage Londoners to plant more, is putting on a range of leafy events, including an exhibition and tree trails